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Conan the Barbarian (Berkley)
is the novelization of the 2011 film of the same name, wirtten by Michael A. Stackpole and based on a screenplay by Thomas Dean Donnelly, Joshua Oppenheimer and Sean Hood. Plot Summary Similar to the movie, the novel is split into two parts...just prior to Khalar Zym attacking Conan's village to obtain the last fragment of the Mask of Acheron and up to the sack of Venarium (the first 100 pages) and then, as an adult, Conan's tracking of, and battle with, Khalar Zym (the last 200 pages). Part I Orders of magnitude better than the previous tale of Conan between age 11 and 15, Conan of Venarium, this novel hits all the best parts that appeared on-screen...and makes them better. We do not see, on camera, the opening scene from the movie where Conan was born on a battlefield and his mother passes away moments later after naming him. We are told that story at an appropriate time in the first part of the novel. Instead, the book opens with a boy pretending that a stick is a sword. Stackpole shows us a Conan that, at only 11 years old, cannot wait to get his hands on a real sword. He also shows us a father, Corin, who realizes that the boy needs to learn to be a man before he learns to be a warrior. Corin channels the boy's determination and builds the boy's character and wits before he begins to teach Conan how to make a sword, and then how to use it. Corin aims for Conan to accomplish far more than the "great things" his clansmen already expect from a warrior "born on a battlefield." We see lessons in patience, humility and leadership. We see lessons on strategy and tactics. We see that knowing who and when to kill are more important than how. More importantly however, after Corin dies in the massacre of Conan's village, we see 20 pages of story that didn't make it into the movie. Instead of a narrated synopsis of the gap between the two parts of the story, we get to see Conan's grandfather, Connacht, not only complete Conan's training, but give the boy a reason to be something other than the one-dimensional vengeance-machine portrayed in both Conan the Barbarian movies. From pages 80-98, Stackpole ensures that Conan is a complete character...one that could easily grow up to become the barbarian that Robert E. Howard wrote about. ... Part II Cut to a time about 12 years later, after the death of Bêlit. Conan, no longer calling himself Amra, has thrown in with Artus, a captain of the Red Brotherhood. Artus knows Conan of old, first meeting him as a thief in Zamora and crossing paths with him, on occasion, in the intervening years as they both made their way separately in the world, not always congenially, but never as outright enemies. Artus' ship, the Hornet, is raiding slavers travelling from Argos to Zingara. Navarus, a slaver that previously shipped his human cargo by boat, attempts a caravan passage along the coast in order to bypass the pirates. Conan disrupts his plans and imprisons the man, leading the freed slaves to Messantia, Zingara. There, locked in a crow's cage, Conan and the pirates toss scraps of food at Navarus while they revel in a tavern. During the celebration, a man slinks through the crowd and seats himself at Conan's table. Noticing that the man is wearing shackles, Conan looks around the tavern to see who the man has escaped from. At the door Conan sees a masked man yelling at his men to search the tavern. The commander has no nose. Conan, as a child, had cut the nose from one of Khalar Zym's men before taking off part of Zym's own ear. After issuing his order, the commander leaves. His men eventually make their way to Conan's table. As they approach, Conan signals to the pirates not to interfere. Preventing the shackled man from fleeing, Conan acts drunk and slow-witted and contrives to be taken to Lucius to collect a reward for catching the escaped man and to seek employment, since he bests four of the soldiers without even drawing his own sword. As a show of good faith he offers to wear shackles to prove he means no harm and is sincere in his claim. On the way to a lead-mine north of the city, Conan learns that the shackled man's name is Ela Shan, self-professed greatest thief in the world, and no friend to barbarians stupid enough to think that Lucius will simply give him a reward and a job. Once at the mine, Conan is left shackled and guarded in the office of Lucius' clerk while Ela Shan is admitted to see the Aquilonian in a securely locked room. When Ela Shan starts to yell in pain, Conan breaks his shackles using a method Connacht taught him as a boy. Conan quickly disables his two guards and then bluffs his way into the locked room using the severed head of Lucius' clerk. Dispatching four more of Lucius' guards, he frees Ela Shan who turns the tables on his tormentor, straping Lucius into the torture device that was being used on the thief just moments before. From Lucius, Conan learns that the man who destroyed his village and killed his father was named Khalar Zym, not Kalarzin. Lucius no longer serves Zym, considering him a liar because he did not become a god, like he claimed he would, after re-assembling the Mask of Acheron in Conan's Village. For twelve long years, Zym has been searching for a girl who carries the "pure blood" of the Kings of Acheron to fully activate the power of the mask...and Lucius grew tired of waiting. In fact, Lucius' plan was to use Ela Shan to break into Zym's fortress, Khor Kalba, and steal the Mask of Acheron for himself. Lucius swears that Khalar Zym is searching the Red Wastes of Shem for the girl and will return to Khor Kalba through the Shaipur Pass. Not trusting Lucius, as the Red Wastes are known to be deserted, Conan keeps his word not to free the slaves or kill Lucius. Instead he makes the Aquilonian swallow the key for the slaves' chains and, after telling the slaves where the key to their freedom is, casts Lucius to them. With that, Ela Shan thanks Conan for his freedom and tells him to seek him in Asgalun, Shem, if he needs to be talked out of trying to assault Khor Kalaba . Conan responds that Ela will know who to thank if he hears that Zym was killed in the Red Wastes, thereby freeing Ela to plunder Khor Kalba without reprisal from the would-be god. ... Cut to an un-named monastery. In time we learn that it lies in the Red Wastes, surrounded by powerful, magical wards. Although the order is never given a name, we learn that the monks are dedicated to maintaining Order in the world and combatting the evils that Chaos can cause. A young female monk, Tamara Amaliat Jorvi Karushan, performs her morning exercises in unarmed combat atop the battlements as the sun rises in the east. Before she is finished a young novitiate arrives to summon her to an audience with the Senior Monk, Master Fassir, at the Pool of Visions. There she learns she'll go on a journey by sea and sand. On that journey she will meet a man, a warrior, but not a knight, and that her destiny will merge with his. The other monks summoned to the Pool are dismissed and Master Fassir tells Tamara to walk with him. Master Fassir asks why Tamara, has never asked how she came to live and study at the monastery. She responds that she never felt the need to ask; she has always felt that she was meant to be there. Despite her prior disinterest in her origins, Master Fassir relates to Tamara as much as he feels she needs to know about how she came to the monastery so she can fulfill her mission for the order. Years earlier, when Tamara was only a child, Fassir's master received a vision and dispatched Fassir into the world to save Tamara from the agents of a madman who sought her for his own twisted ends. Before they could deliver Tamara to their master, Fassir intervened and brought the girl to the monastery, to protect her and to train her to protect herself. Her parents, if they still lived, were never notified that Tamara survived, so they and any relatives would not be made to suffer by the madman in order to reveal her location. Tamara reconciles the decisions of her master and his master before him, deciding that, in this case, the ends did justify the means. She accepts her future mission: to prevent the madman from accomplishing his evil goals. Fassir tells her that she must make a journey to the order's temple in Hyrkania in the near future, but not yet. He also warns Tamara that she will find her warrior to be "...a most challenging companion." ... Conan returns to the tavern in Messantia where the Pirates still revel. Gone half a day, Conan has barely been missed. Artus, descending from the tavern's upper floor and "...girded for war," has only just been informed that Conan was taken away in chains. Conan surprises Artus by announcing that he's leaving. Artus attempts to get to the bottom of Conan's statement and finds out that it is Khalar Zym that the Cimmerian is after. Despite his fearsome reputation, Artus pledges his sword, his ship and his crew to Conan's cause but Conan turns him down...he doesn't even know if Zym is actually in the Red Wastes...Lucius could have been lying. Artus puts Conan ashore in Northern Shem and works his way inland and east to the Red Wastes with plans to rendezvous with the Hornet further south (and east) along coast of Shem, at the Shaipur Pass. As Conan rides he thinks about how the Hornet and the sea still reminds him of his time with Bêlit. He also spends time pondering how his father differed from his grandfather and realizes that despite his grandfather's renowned battle prowess it was Corin, not Connacht, who was entrusted with the responsibility of hiding and protecting the mask fragment. He also ponders the difference between being a warrior and simply seeking vengeance. ... Change scene to Marique's chamber aboard her father's land-ship...a full-sized sea-going vessel carried on land by eight elephants. Marique is communing with her "voices" in order to see possible futures. We find Marique is now almost covered with tattoos. Apparently she is having artists inscribe her skin with the same symbols of power that the Priest-Kings of Acheron used in creating the mask. That way, when her father's quest to empower the mask fails, he will need her more than anyone else on earth. For Marique harbours a less-than-wholesome fixation for her father and would gladly take her mother's place at his side. We also learn that Marique's mother, Maliva was a poor scholar when it came to properly interpreting the ancient Acheronian texts...it was Marique who discovered the reason why the mask did not make Zym all-powerful when he completed it; even after he repeatedly drenched it with blood; even with blood from Acheronian lines. The mask would not be restored to its full power without an infusion of blood from the line of the very last priest-king to wear it. Summoned by her father to the deck of the land-ship, Marique is called upon to do what the two rangers who sought the monastery in the Red Wastes have failed to accomplish. Through her sorcery she can feel the powerful wards that obscure the path to the monastery. She enspells both rangers, faces them towards the direction she feels the wards emanating from and, with their eyes closed, asks them both what they see. One of the rangers can see with his mind a path and Marique orders him to follow it...then has the other ranger executed. ... Conan is also having trouble traversing the Red Wastes. He spent last night on the same hill he had visited numerous times in the past few days...with good, natural drinking water and in clear view of a road that leads out of the Red Wastes. By realizing that something is acting on him that leads him astray of his intended path, he resolves to move in a direct line no matter what forces try to act upon him. Slowly he begins moving in a specific direction, actively supressing feelings that it would be ok to turn aside and then stronger feelings that he should give up. Then, suddenly, the resistance disappears. ... Khalar Zym has found his way through the wards and is attacking the monastery. Tamara is one of the first monks to engage and defeat one of Zyms riders who are slaying people indiscriminately...except for the women. The riders are followed by Hyrkanian archers and rank upon rank of soldiers. When Tamara is grappled by two soldiers she defeats them both and, seeing that the battle is lost, retreats into the temple in search of Master Fassir and guidance...now would seem to be a good time to travel to the monastery in Hyrkania! As the land-ship crashes through the masonry above the monastery’s gate, Tamara sees Khalar Zym for the first time and knows that he is the madman that she is destined to battle...but not without the warrior from her Master's vision. As Tamara stands frozen, Fassir seizes her and ushers her to the rear of the monastery. Cut off from their destination by a squad of Zym's soldiers, Fassir orders her to take the coach he has made ready against this eventuality and to travel immediately to the monastery in Hyrkania. Fassir stays behind to battle the soldiers. And its opening moves are worthy of a Bruce Lee movie. ... In the monastery's courtyard, Marique magically interrogates the captured women to see if the Pure Blood is amongst them. Her quarry has departed, however and Khalar Zym's patience is so close to its ends that he readies to strike his daughter for failing him...and we see her prepared to kill him if hw does. At that moment however, Master Fassir is dragged into the square by a handful of soldiers and presented to Zym. Through their dialogue we learn that the monastery has a darker side...not only is it complicit with the witch-hunters who burned Maliva at the stake...but, after saving Tamara, Fassir admits to having hunted down and killed every member of Tamara's family to prevent them from being exploited by Zym. Zym vows to find the monastery in Hyrkania and Fassir goads the madman into killing him. Characters *Conan *Corin - Conan's father, blacksmith *Connacht - Conan's grandfather. A.K.A. Connacht the Freebooter, Connacht the Far-Travelled *Fialla - Conan's mother *Ronan - Warrior of Corin's tribe *Ardel - eldest son of Ronan *Mahon - Warrior of Corin's tribe *Senan - Warrior in Corin's tribe *Eiran - youth who has begun his Warrior training *Eiran - elderly warrior of Corin's tribe. A.K.A. old Eiran *Deirdre - elderly matron of Corin's tribe *Khalar Zym - Main antagonist. A.K.A. Kalarzin (as 12 year old Conan mispronounces it). A.K.A. Caarzyn (as Artus pronounced it from Conan's drunken stories) *Lucius - Aquilonian luitenant of Khalar Zym during the destruction of Conan's village. Conan cuts off Lucius' nose attempting to save his father. *Marique - Khalar Zym's daughter *Remo - senior warrior in Khalar Zym's army *Akhoun - senior warrior in Khalar Zym's army *Aiden - Clan cheiftain of tribes located south of Conan's village *Kiernan - Cimmerian "Outlander" at the sack of Venarium, 10 years Conan's senior *Artus - Pirate captain if the Hornet, friend of Conan *Navarus - slaver whose men once tried to capture Conan *Ela Shan - self-styled "greatest theif in the world" of Asgalun, Shem *Tamara Amaliat Jorvi Karushan - descendant of the royal house of Acheron. Monk of the monastery in the Red Waste. 20 years old *Master Fassir - Senior monk of the monastery in the Red Waste Locations *northern Cimmeria, Conan's village *Brita's Vale - site of a historic battle of Cimmerians vs Aquilonians by name only *northern Cimmeria, Connacht's steading *Fort Venarium *Zingaran coastline between Argos and Messantia *Messantia, Zingara *Un-named monastery in the Red Wastes where an sect of monks strive to maintain Order and defeat the evil caused by Chaos *Red Wastes - barren region where twisted black trees sprout like thorns from the earth. Erned its name from the blood the land drank over the years, not from it's geography. *Shiapur Pass Mystical Items *The Mask of Acheron - Made from the bones and fed with the blood of the daughters of the subject kings of Acheron's empire, the Mask gave tremendous mystic power to it's wearer. Continuity Notes Printing History '' ''(novel) • Michael A. Stackpole • Berkely Boulevard, July 2011